Edited by Sally Crawford, Katharina Ulmschneider, and Jaś Elsner

Offers contributions by a wide range of eminent scholars and a multi-faceted, interdisciplinary approach

Ark of Civilization

Refugee Scholars and Oxford University, 1930-1945

Edited by Sally Crawford, Katharina Ulmschneider, and Jaś Elsner

Description

In the opening decades of the twentieth century, Germany was at the cutting edge of arts and humanities scholarship across Europe. However, when many of its key thinkers - leaders in their fields in classics, philosophy, archaeology, art history, and oriental studies - were forced to flee to England following the rise of the Nazi regime, Germany's loss became Oxford's gain.

From the mid-1930s onwards, Oxford could accurately be described as an 'ark of knowledge' of western civilization: a place where ideas about art, culture, and history could be rescued, developed, and disseminated freely. The city's history as a place of refuge for scientists who were victims of Nazi oppression is by now familiar, but the story of its role as a sanctuary for cultural heritage, though no less important, has received much less attention.

In this volume, the impact of Oxford as a shelter, a meeting point, and a centre of thought in the arts and humanities specifically is addressed, by looking both at those who sought refuge there and stayed, and those whose lives intersected with Oxford at crucial moments before and during the war. Although not every great refugee can be discussed in detail in this volume, this study offers an introduction to the unique conjunction of place, people, and time that shaped Western intellectual history, exploring how the meeting of minds enabled by libraries, publishing houses, and the University allowed Oxford's refugee scholars to have a profound and lasting impact on the development of British culture. Drawing on oral histories, previously unpublished letters, and archives, it illuminates and interweaves both personal and global histories to demonstrate how, for a short period during the war, Oxford brought together some of the greatest minds of the age to become the custodians of a great European civilization.

Sally Crawford is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Archaeology in Oxford, where her research into the archives in collaboration with co-editor Katharina Ulmschneider has led to myriad exhibitions, lectures, and publications on the history of archaeology. She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, Co-Director of the Historic Environment Image Resource, co-founder and Chair of the Society for the Study of Childhood in the Past, and monograph co-editor of the series Studies in Early Medicine.

Katharina Ulmschneider is a Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College, Oxford, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and an Associate Member of the Society of Archivists. She has published widely on medieval archaeology and economy and also on the impact of metal detecting in archaeology, and her co-edited book Markets in Early Medieval Europe won the British Archaeology Book award in 2004. Since 2013 she has been Co-Director of the Historic Environment Image Resource alongside Sally Crawford.

Jaś Elsner is the Humfry Payne Senior Research Fellow in Classical Archaeology and Art at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, as well as Visiting Professor of Art and Religion at the University of Chicago. He is widely published and serves as the joint editor of two monograph series, Greek Culture in the Roman World and Ashgate Studies in Pilgrimage. Since 2013 he has been Principal Investigator on the Empires of Faith Project between the British Museum and Wolfson College, Oxford, which explores the visual cultures of world religions in the Mediterranean and Asia between 200 and 800 AD and will form the basis of a forthcoming monograph series from Oxford University Press.

Contributors:

Charmian Brinson, Emeritus Professor of German at Imperial College London Laurence Brockliss, Fellow and Tutor in History at Magdalen College, Oxford, and Professor in Early-Modern French History at the University of Oxford Bojan Bujic, Emeritus Fellow at Magdalen College, Oxford Sally Crawford, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford Alexander Cullen, independent scholar, UK Philip Davies, Teaching Associate in Greek History at the University of Nottingham Ann Rau Dawes, independent scholar, London Rachel Dickson, Head of Curatorial Services at the Ben Uri Gallery and Museum, London Jaś Elsner, Humfry Payne Senior Research Fellow at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and Visiting Professor of Art and Religion at the University of Chicago Rahel E. Feilchenfeldt, independent scholar, Munich, Germany David W. J. Gill, Professor of Archaeological Heritage at the University of Suffolk Anthony Grenville, Consultant Editor of the AJR Journal of the Association of Jewish Refugees, London Conrad Leyser, Fellow and Tutor in History at Worcester College, Oxford Fran Lloyd, Professor of Art History at Kingston University London Katharina Lorenz, Associate Professor in Classical Studies at the University of Nottingham Kate Lowe, Professor of Renaissance History and Culture at Queen Mary University of London Marian Malet, Research Centre for German and Austrian Exile Studies at the University of London Oswyn Murray, Emeritus Fellow at Balliol College, Oxford Harold Mytum, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Liverpool Anna Nyburg, Lecturer in German at Imperial College London Christopher Stray, Honorary Research Fellow at Swansea University 8QQ, Scotland Anna Teicher, independent scholar, Cambridge Katharina Ulmschneider, Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College, Oxford Graham Whitaker, Honorary Research Fellow in Classics at the University of Glasgow

Ark of Civilization

Refugee Scholars and Oxford University, 1930-1945

Edited by Sally Crawford, Katharina Ulmschneider, and Jaś Elsner

Reviews and Awards

"this book documents stories of individuals and institutions showing imagination as well as sympathy ... it is good to be reminded of more enlightened and more generous impulses" - Stefan Collini, London Review of Books

"this book is a welcome addition to the growing literature on the refugees who so enriched British culture in the 1930s and 1940s." - David Herman, Jewish Renaissance